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Sales Challenges & Frustrations—and How to End Them [Infographic]

By Kevin Flanagan | March 21, 2017

Calling. Chasing. Waiting. If you’ve spent any time at all working in B2B sales, you know how frustrating it can be trying to track down potential customers.

This infographic describes the costs—in terms of both time and lost business—that sales teams experience as they try to connect with prospects via an increasingly annoying exchange of voicemail and email messages.

One of the most depressing statistics is that sales teams only spend about one-third of their time actually selling! They spent the rest of their work day trying to reach prospects, performing administrative tasks and responding to mundane emails. As the cliché goes, “there’s got to be a better way!”

When a hot lead comes in via your company’s website, from an event or other source, the assigned rep usually jumps on that opportunity and sends an email to the prospect proposing a call or meeting. The idea is the two will connect quickly so the rep can delve into how the company’s solution can solve the prospect’s challenges. And that’s when the email/voicemail game starts.

But what if that email to the hot prospect contains a link directly to the sales rep’s calendar, showing times the rep is available for a call or meeting? The prospect could—whenever it’s convenient for them—pick a mutually available time to talk with the sales rep. It’s that simple.

Making it easy for prospects to engage with sales reps might put an end to the wonderful game of calling, chasing and waiting, but something tells me most sales professionals would be willing to forgo that tradition in favor of faster engagement with the prospects who will help them meet—or exceed—quota. Call it a hunch.

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Kevin is director of content marketing for TimeTrade. He develops and curates the company’s public-facing information to enable customers and prospects to see the unique value TimeTrade solutions deliver to their businesses and teams. He also leads the company’s public relations program. In a high-technology career spanning three decades, Kevin has brought his communications and marketing expertise to a number of leading brands, including Verizon, PictureTel, Yankee Group, 3Com and Carbon Black. Before launching his tech career, Kevin honed his communications skills during 5 years as a radio news anchor and reporter. He earned a degree in English literature, but he credits his obsession with grammar, spelling and punctuation perfection to 12 years of daily drilling in parochial school.